T.J. Sanders’ second season in Buffalo has hit another snag, and the Bills responded by bringing back a familiar face on the defensive line.
Sanders, the former second-round pick, hurt his knee in practice before Week 1 against the Texans and was inactive for that game. The knee issue carried into Week 2, and on the short week against the Lions, he sat again. He was also dealing with an illness.
Now there’s another health issue in the mix: Sanders is also dealing with a non-football related ailment. Brady did not give a specific timetable for Sanders’ recovery from appendectomy.
With Sanders unavailable, Buffalo added veteran defensive tackle Austin Johnson to the practice squad on Wednesday.
Johnson, now 32, spent the 2024 season with the Bills and played 353 snaps, including 21 in the AFC Championship Game against the Chiefs. He was mostly used as a run defender, finishing with 10 stops against the run, while generating eight pressures on 187 pass-rush snaps.
Before his year in Buffalo, Johnson played for the Chargers in 2022 and 2023, after earlier stops with the Giants and the Titans, where he spent his first four NFL seasons.
For Sanders, it’s another frustrating turn after last season already included a stint on IR because of a knee injury. He’s still a player Buffalo wants to see take a step, and I called him the biggest X-factor on the defense before the season. That feeling hasn’t changed this early, but the Bills would clearly like to get him healthy and settled into Jim Leonhard’s system as soon as possible.
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Bills-Chargers History Is Full Of Buffalos Best And Worst Memories
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Still, the larger series has tilted the other way, with the Chargers holding a 25-14-2 lead overall, and the games between these teams have produced a few unforgettable oddities along the way. There was the 2008 delay at Orchard Park caused by a power outage, and the 2017 meeting that turned into a nightmare for rookie Nathan Peterman, reminders that this one has never really been short on either drama or pain for Buffalo fans. [Read more 🡒]